11.5 Gadu Badu

Adaran sent delegations to Fua Mulak and the Suvadives carrying invitation letters to join the newly formed independent state.

Major Phyllis looked for a viable and an English-speaking leader to represent the new republic. Some of the leading Hittadu people suggested the Pakistani camp supervisor to represent them. Major Phyllis frowned, “Most irrelevant! Absolutely unacceptable! It has to be one of you at this stage we decide to finish with the Malé Government and establish our own.” Then a name was suggested of a man in Colombo and the British said he was too far to collect.

Finally, it landed on Adaran once again who initially refused to accept to become the spearhead arguing that the idea of secession was doomed to failure. He would end up in the same dungeon. His protests fell on deaf ears and the desperate men of Hittadu threatened to demolish his house and harm his family. Adaran came under a virtual lockdown. There was no choice but to accept his fate.

Major Phyllis reminded him, “You bear what you have demanded. Don’t let your men down.”

With all reluctance, Adaran accepted to be their leader and promised to lead the new government and the rebel movement to the best of his ability. He promised, “I will be the last man to desert the new republic.”

On 9^th January, a top commission from Malé arrived in Addu to check on the situation and to see for themselves of the condition of the evacuees and claimed that the people were not happy with the accommodation arranged. On the day of their departure, on 12^th January, a confrontation broke out in bodily fights among the Gan evacuees and the members of the commission. Again, the RAF soldiers stood by and watched. Some other islanders came to the rescue and saved the lives of the members of the top-level delegation. They returned to Malé leaving behind Magic Mihar as the new liaison official.

On 11^th January, a committee was chosen by the government formed of members in the Cabinet. They left for Colombo on 14^th January and soon negotiations began between the British and the Maldive Government with regard to the agreement on lease of Gan; the government still seeking to shorten the term of 100 years.

On 6^th February, Fua Mulak officially joined the republic followed by the Suvadives on 17^th of the month. Boats were heading to Addu Atoll to rejoice in the new union and secession from Malé. Those boats waved the flag of the United Suvadive Islands Republic in red, green and blue with three stars aligning in a SW-NE diagonal with a crescent encircling the centre star.

When news broke out on world radios on March 13^th, Maldive delegation in Colombo withdrew from talks and returned to Malé for further briefing. On this day, the United Suvadive Islands Republic was established with Adaran as president and Hittadu as its capital, without a representative from either Suvadiva or Fua Mulak. USIR flags flew high on top of the posts at the offices in the atoll, the torched Atoll Office in Maradu and even on Gan.

Wing Commander John Knet, the CO of RAF Gan, received the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Air Force, Air Marshal, the Earl of Bandon, on a tour to Gan coinciding with the 13^th March ceremony.

The Suvadives was a vast atoll however Adaran’s connections linked to one man – the wealthy Warlord of Thinadu who was believed to have more gold and money than the entire treasury of the Maldive Islands. Suvadiva supported the union though secession devalued the local currency, traders took a turn to link with Addu Atoll, staple food grew scarce and expensive. Suvadivan people moved to Addu in search of jobs. At this early stage, even base workers were paid in vouchers. There was famine in some of the islands in the Suvadives.

World media painted a harsh nature of condition existing in the south of the Maldive Islands reporting of famine, forty people died. The British sent a vessel, the Starline Trader, with food to Thinadu.

An intel received by the government from the Russians read that a telegram sent to the Commonwealth Relations Office on 22^nd March from Gan Island stated that the German Captain of the Starline Trader who stepped ashore saw no obvious signs of starvation. In fact, he was given lunch and was presented with 16 chickens and 100 eggs, coconuts and bananas. The RAF police corporal who saw to the unloading of food items surveyed through his binoculars to confirm that starvation was not present.

Addu folks happily attended to work at the base. Those boats waving the USIR flags commuted workers making good progress in fairly regular winds and lay on the swells in Gan waters until nightfall. Adduan islanders began to receive their pay in pound sterling and enjoyed better standard of living.